Do scenarios help

If you follow me in social media you know that I often post scenarios on Facebook to give the members an opportunity to put themselves in the thinking man’s game. These scenarios are not made up but are based on my personal experiences or those of others that I know. So what’s the big deal about posting scenarios.

Allows for open dialogue for problem solving. Specialist of varying levels of experience get a chance to test their brains and learn from others at the same time.

Opens the eyes to new ideas when you read the responses of other specialists. In many cases a specialist may responding, “I’m just guessing here…..” and may be absolutely correct in their response, however when a more seasoned specialist makes the same response and explains why, the previous responder understands the mindset and “why” you do it a certain way.

This CRAFT is chess not checkers. When I post a scenario I purposely present it in a way that you have to read it carefully first , then think before you answer. More often that not, there are some implied facts within each scenario that a thinking chess playing specialist will pick up.

Builds thinkers. Scenarios make you think even if you don’t know the answer. Even for a short moment, everyone that reads the scenario will pause, put themselves in that moment and try to war-game it out.

A week or so ago I posted a scenario as such: You are in a 2 car motorcade where you are the detail leader and sit in the front right of the limo. You have a follow car with a shift leader and one other specialist. The shift leader sits front right of the follow vehicle. Where do you prefer the additional specialist to sit. Positions in vehicles are numbered. Drivers are in the one slot, front right is position 2, passenger driver’s side is 3 and so on for each vehicle. That said, the detail leader is in Papa 2 [Primary vehicle slot 2] shift leader is Fox 2 [Follow vehicle slot 2]. What slot would the above mentioned extra specialist be seated.

There were several great responses but surprisingly there was only one that answered “Tactically/textbook” correctly. I should have exempted him from the scenario because he has worked with me in this scenario covering a foreign dignitary. The other surprise was that even those responses that may have been tactically or textbook wrong, I was pleased with their response because the explained why they would choose the seating position that they chose.

The textbook response and the way you are expected to deploy that specialist if you are working with an official team would be slot 3 behind the driver of the follow vehicle. With the shift leader in the front right he area of responsibility during the motorcade movement would be from 10:00-6:00 which covers the right side of the motorcade and the left rear specialist [slot 3] would be from 11:00 to 6:00 which covers the left side of the vehicle. Having the additional specialist on the right side would double the efforts on the right side and leave the left side uncovered. If you are concerned about the arrivals, barring any oncoming traffic the left rear specialist would deploy from the driver’s side of the follow and deploy to the left rear of the limo. If there is oncoming traffic he can “slide” across the seat and deploy from the passenger side and still cover the arrival effectively.